For convenient reference a “selection” will refer to an audio and/or video recording herein. Listening to and/or visually watching a selection is referred to collectively as “viewing” the selection. Copyright coverage of a viewable selection often requires payment of a royalty, or of a royalty-equivalent, when the selection is viewed more than a threshold number of times. A royalty-equivalent may be “paid” by viewing one or more commercial messages or advertisements at a time contemporaneous with viewing of the selection.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“Millennium Act”) imposes additional requirements on a user who views, or offers viewing of, a sequence of two or more selections associated with a given recording, artist, artist group or anthology. One motivation for imposition of these additional requirements is to ensure that a given selection or artist does not become “shopworn” by reason of being viewed too often. The Millennium Act requirements are fairly complex and involve more than merely counting the number of times a particular selection is viewed in a commercial context.
What is needed is a system and associated method that facilitates compliance with the Millennium Act and facilitates viewing of royalty bearing and non-royalty bearing selections according to earlier provisions of copyright law. Preferably, the system should be flexible enough to allow quantitative and qualitative changes that reflect foreseeable changes in the applicable copyright law and should allow automation of a procedure for compliance with applicable copyright law.